SRCZ TV Review // Doctor Who – ‘The Doctor's Meditation’

“A little whole ago, a
long way from here, I was looking for a book shop…’

SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Meditation Begins. With
Series Nine of Doctor Who one of the most anticipated for a while we’ve been
treated to this prequel to series opener The Magician’s Apprentice. With
darkness and misery seemingly portended, the Doctor is seeking better tasting
water to aid in his meditation and over the course of many days he attempts to
begin the aforementioned meditation.

“I do not believe you’re
capable of silence” is one comment made to The Doctor over his ability to
commence a meditation and just as this viewer is certain of the fact it is fairly
unlikely that such an energetic character as Peter Capldi’s Doctor can actually
keep still for more than two second so it transpires that there is no meditation.
Instead a story begins and wipes away the serene moments at the beginning of
this minisode when we see The Doctor, eyes closed and silent, sat by a warm
fire.

Most tellingly, three hours
of time seems like days to this “attention deficit” enabled Doctor. There is
humour, such as the suggestion that the much thought out well needs a visitors
centre and The Doctor’s lovingly made statement to his companion Bors: ‘I
thought you were and idiot!’ Bors agrees
and it’s a warm moment indeed. This six minutes of Doctor Who is, like much of
series 8, a slow burning piece and the story is only just beginning. A quest
for a bookshop which lead to a battlefield is suggested and it might be the
last one The Doctor sees…

Minisodes can be hit and
miss, occasionally seeming like footage that didn’t quite make the cut but The
Doctor's Meditation befits it’s function of setting up the story and intriguing
the audience simultaneously.